Amritjit Singh to deliver Dialogue On Diversity Lecture, March 21

The Dialogue On Diversity Spring Lecture will address the topic “Migration and Citizenship: African American and Asian American Stories” on Wednesday, March 21, from 12:30-2 p.m. in Alger Hall 110.

Amritjit Singh

Amritjit Singh, Langston Hughes Professor of English at Ohio University, will provide a lecture exploring the patterns of African Americans’ internal migration from the South between the end of the Civil War to the 1920s, and the hurdles that Asian immigrants from various locations faced in their search for “home” and citizenship during those years.

Singh said his focus on forced internal migrations “will raise some questions in the minds of [my mostly] young listeners…with strong immigrant memories.”

He will also advocate for fresh understandings of citizenship and “race” through his examination of the immigrant and non-immigrant movements of population that have shaped the United States.

Singh, who taught at Rhode Island College for 20 years, earning the rank of professor emeritus of English, was the 1991-92 recipient of RIC’s Mary Tucker Thorp Professorship for demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarship and/or service. He also received the college’s 2003 Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty Award.

Singh is senior editor for the MELA (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas) Series from Rutgers University Press and has authored, edited, or co-edited over 15 books, including The Novels of the Harlem Renaissance (1976), The Harlem Renaissance: Revaluations (1989), Conversations with Ralph Ellison (1995) and The Collected Writings of Wallace Thurman (2003).

The lecture is funded and supported by the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, a College Lectures Committee grant and the Dialogue On Diversity Committee.

For more information, contact Dialogue On Diversity co-chair Antoinette Gomes at (401) 456-8791 or agomes@ric.edu.